ON RETURNING FROM A WALKING TRIP IN BASQUE COUNTRY
There has been a long hiatus since my last posting. It is clear to me now, in retrospect, just what has been going on during these last four and more months. I've been transitioning--again and still!
I'm just back from a walking trip in the Basque Country in France and Spain. On a walking trip, life is simple, pared to the essentials: you walk, eat and sleep ("and shower," my traveling companion added).
I prepared seriously for the walking trip. It was a summertime focus. Even so, I wondered: Could I do it? All of that is behind me now.
We walked for 7 days. From a pedometer I wore, I know I walked an average of 10 miles a day for a week and nearly 7 a day for the second, all of this during weeks when the current financial crisis was developing here in the US--and throughout the world.
Randye and I had decided we were not going to try to stay abreast of these developments. We would ignore them, to the extent that we could, while we were away. (Following the walk, we spent an additional week on our own in Bilbao, San Sebastian and Barcelona.)
As the first week of walking drew to an end, I was aware of "a great emptying." I felt ready, too, even eager, for a new filling up. The trip had been designed perfectly for this "out and in" rhythm, so natural as breathing.
The "filling" began almost immediately--with things we saw and people we talked to in the places we visited. We found Obama supporters everywhere we went. These were people who were travelers of the world,many with a period of living in the US, global citizens all with an interest in the outcome of our election.
Globalization may have begun with trade, but the human "underpinnings" were visible--all around us. Home now, I am getting back to the crisis we are in. To look at it as a human topic, a one-world human topic, is my intention.
In short, I'm back from my travels and I'm back to the blog, SenseiandSensibility. Learning, I believe, hasn't really "landed" until it is applied. I'm eager to see where these new developments go.
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